Contract Enforcement and Institutions Among the Maghribi Traders: Refuting Edwards and Ogilvie
Contract Enforcement and Institutions Among the Maghribi Traders: Refuting Edwards and Ogilvie
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马格里比商人中的合同执行和机构：反驳爱德华兹和奥格尔维
DOI：
10.2139/ssrn.1153826
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发表时间：
2008
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
A. Greif
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
A. Greif
爱德华兹和奥格尔维对多边声誉机制缓解了11世纪马格里布商人的代理问题这一观点的经验基础提出了质疑。他们声称商人和代理人之间的关系是建立在法律上的。本文驳斥了这种说法，使用全面的定量分析，所有可用的主要来源和仔细审查的文件和文献爱德华兹和奥格尔维引用。在最近报告的新的定量调查结果中：（1）不到百分之一的文件内容专门讨论有关任何事项的法律的活动。(2)法律的制度主要用于强制性的、与贸易无关的事项。(3)这些文件反映了成千上万的代理关系，但可能反映其在代理纠纷中的使用的法院文件不到六份。(4)从所有文件中随机抽取10%的样本，发现除了法庭文件中的那些，马格里布人之间没有与贸易有关的法律的行动。(5)大约75%的代理关系不是基于法律的合同。本文还重申了格雷夫的文献例证的准确性，并阐明了法律的制度和声誉机制在这一时期的作用。
Edwards and Ogilvie dispute the empirical basis of the view that a multilateral reputation mechanism mitigated agency problems among the eleventh-century Maghribi traders. They allege that the relations among merchants and agents were founded in law. This paper refutes this assertion using comprehensive quantitative analyses of all available primary sources and a careful review of the documents and the literature Edwards and Ogilvie cite. Among recent new quantitative findings reported: (1) less than one percent of the documents’ content is devoted to legal activity on any matter. (2) The legal system was mainly used for mandatory, non-trade related matters. (3) The documents reflect thousands of agency relations but there are less than six court documents possibly reflecting its use in agency disputes. (4) A ten percent random sample of all the documents finds no trade-related legal actions among Maghribis beyond those in the court documents. (5) About 75 percent of agency relations were not based on a legal contract. The paper also reaffirms the accuracy of Greif’s documentary examples and sheds light on the roles of the legal system and reputation mechanism during this period.